Author Topic: Getting something to compute with  (Read 14938 times)

Spectere

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Re: Getting something to compute with
« Reply #15 on: June 17, 2019, 09:53:10 AM »
Optical Media Drive, thinking of gutting the dvd drive off my current machine, or getting a shiny new blu ray, undecided yet

If you intend on using the system to watch and/or rip Blu-rays, get the BD drive, otherwise just stick with the DVD drive. There's no other compelling reason to get a BD-ROM drive on a PC.

Ram, could take the 16 gigs from my current machine, buy new ram? or get 32 gigs which could be stupid overkill, not sure

Reusing RAM is only possible if your current system uses DDR4, so keep that in mind.

16GB is still fine for most stuff, though I've been recommending 32GB more and more lately for the sake of future-proofing. That's always something that you can expand later on, though, so don't stress about it too much.

GPU, pretty lost on this one, under $300 would be nice unless I can see reason to spend more, in that case under $400 might be doable

This one got a bit easier over the past few months.

I'd recommend the RTX 2060. Its performance sits between the GTX 1070 and the GTX 1080, costs around $360, and includes the super hyped RTX feature set for when more games start taking advantage of that.

Alternatively, if you want to save quite a bit and get something between the 1060 and 1070, the 1660 is an good option at $220.

There's a 1660 Ti at $280, but after looking at the benchmarks it just doesn't seem worth it to me. The 1660 Ti is in an awkward place between the 1660 and the 2060, as it doesn't really offer enough over the normal 1660 when it comes to 1080p gaming yet doesn't quite have the same chops as the 2060 when it comes to 1440p performance. Plus, it obviously doesn't have the RTX feature set that the newer generation card has.

tl;dr 1060 for $220 if you want to keep the cost down or the RTX 2060 for $360 if you want to get higher fps's and do some future proofing.

OS, I just buy win10 from amazon and its easy peazy? or is there a better way? I see some for $85, and some for $100, but they say the same win10 home OEM. I don't quite understand. Should a user like myself even consider pro?

The main feature of Pro that would directly impact you is that it gives you more control over Windows updates. Not infinite control like 8.1 and under, but it allows you to defer updates for up to a year. I tend to use that feature because it seems like Microsoft gets the update launch window wrong more often than it gets it right, and I was tired of getting stung (plus there's the fact that the infamous bug from when 1809 launched that would cause your documents directory to be deleted under circumstances would have triggered on my machine if I'd installed it when it shipped).

One feature that may impact you is that Pro also lets you control your system via remote desktop. The amount of use you'd get out of that is, of course, dependent on you. :)

That being said, given the stability of Windows 10 thus far, I would highly recommend going to Pro if it isn't much more just so you can defer feature updates for a month or so until they get the kinks out.

As far as OEM vs. retail, it's all a matter of how the license is worded. OEM licenses are intended to be moved along with the machine, and are indicated by the stickers that Dell and friends slap on the case. Retail licenses are licensed to a person and are designed to be moved between machines. In practice, for your personal machine, it doesn't really matter. FWIW, I'm using an OEM license for my system right now.

tl;dr this is my recommendation
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vladgd

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Re: Getting something to compute with
« Reply #16 on: June 27, 2019, 11:47:11 PM »
Well the sonbitch is up and running... And I'm typing this on a phone... because I forget my password for this site and I am too tired to email a new password...

Speaking of, I've been off computers for over a year it seems... You need to make an account for goddamn everything now a days and it's MANDATORY. I couldn't install win10 without an account, I couldn't even install my goddamn Nvidia drivers without a mandatory account. The fuck is this world coming to? I don't want to juggle a notepad with 2,000 different passwords.

Either way more details later, I'm tired, and my setup is...to put it lightly temporary enough to see that the machine works, and get drivers and other things installed.

Spectere

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Re: Getting something to compute with
« Reply #17 on: June 28, 2019, 07:55:06 AM »
Well the sonbitch is up and running...

[size=36]\o/[/size]

I couldn't even install my goddamn Nvidia drivers without a mandatory account.

The NVIDIA drivers doesn't require an account. That GeForce Experience (i.e. the driver autoupdater, which I think is still an optional package) does, but if you update the drivers manually you shouldn't have to sign in.

The fuck is this world coming to? I don't want to juggle a notepad with 2,000 different passwords.

I just gave up and started using LastPass a bunch of years ago. I would have preferred something decentralized like KeePass, but I needed something that wouldn't be an absolute PITA to sync to an immeasurable number of devices. I have it running across Windows, Linux, macOS, and iOS devices (and I used the Android version a bit when I still had a Nexus 9) and it's made my life way easier overall.
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Bobbias

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Re: Getting something to compute with
« Reply #18 on: June 30, 2019, 04:25:15 AM »
Most of my passwords are linked to my google account because I'm too damn lazy to do anything else. I had keepass set up for a while, but that became too much of a PITA.
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vladgd

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Re: Getting something to compute with
« Reply #19 on: July 02, 2019, 10:08:27 PM »
What did I miss, ended up with the RTX 2060, and got 32 gigs ram.  Took a few days but I have it setup in my living room, fairly comfortable using it, although my keyboard is a bit too short of a cable....no issue since im getting a cheap mech tomorrow to replace it.

Do want a new monitor since this 24 inch is a bit too small to read comfortably from as far away from it as I am, but it's functional for now.

Had a few issues so far, nothing MAJOR, but some annoying. mouse/kb turning on my pc when it's off, an issue if the cat steps on it, fixed that. windows not wanting to boot because my boot stuff isnt ordered correctly, fixed that...once, had a windows update which made it come back, fixed it again (i honestly dont know what i did both times, but i did something in the boot part of my bios).

Some games in other resolutions straight up break my pc, AND monitor. Diablo III did this, but the geforce thing autoset it to 4k for some reason and it fixed it somehow. Street fighter 4 did the same thing, only I havent figured out how to fix it yet. Literally breaks everything, my monitor goes black, and CANT POWER OFF, I literally have to unplug the monitor and re plug it back in, and it persists after a system restart. The game works, but as soon as I try to change the resolution TO 1080p, breaks, and the same thing happens if I alt tab, breaks.

Tried civ 6, works fine, bought DOOM, and tried streaming it. Ultra 1080p (I don't have a 1440p monitor....YET!) works like butter, runs like an absolute dream, and my stream feedback (and looking at archive myself) my internet is good enough to show a good quality image at 60fps (at least I assume 60, since that's what my obs is set to), so im happy about that. Only played about an hour to test it, but im very pleased with DOOM. AND THE BEST PART IS PLAYING ON A RECLINER, even with my ghetto ass keyboard in my lap, mouse on the armrest setup, pretty comfortable. Getting a lap desk and a tenkeyless keyboard, so reporting later on how that works when gear arrives.

And figured out my password here so actually have the luxury of typing on a real ass keyboard over some stupid mobile device.

Besides a few annoying issues, and not being used to being on a computer at all anymore, I'm pretty happy with how it's turned out. Not to mention my typing speed hasn't seem to degrade at all, save for my fingers getting tired, but that'll go away with time.

Bobbias

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Re: Getting something to compute with
« Reply #20 on: July 03, 2019, 08:37:07 AM »
Nice stuff, other than the shit breaking part anyway.

Sounds like a pretty sweet setup TBH.
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Spectere

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Re: Getting something to compute with
« Reply #21 on: July 03, 2019, 01:39:57 PM »
Some games in other resolutions straight up break my pc, AND monitor. Diablo III did this, but the geforce thing autoset it to 4k for some reason and it fixed it somehow. Street fighter 4 did the same thing, only I havent figured out how to fix it yet. Literally breaks everything, my monitor goes black, and CANT POWER OFF, I literally have to unplug the monitor and re plug it back in, and it persists after a system restart. The game works, but as soon as I try to change the resolution TO 1080p, breaks, and the same thing happens if I alt tab, breaks.

That's really weird. I've had one of my monitors at work (a Dell P2214H) "crash" like that before, but it's always really rare and really inconsistent. It might be a dud.

Only played about an hour to test it, but im very pleased with DOOM. AND THE BEST PART IS PLAYING ON A RECLINER, even with my ghetto ass keyboard in my lap, mouse on the armrest setup, pretty comfortable.

I'm planning to move my PC into an office for functional purposes, but after I do that I know I'm going to miss the recliner bit. I might hook my Steam Link up to my TV just so that I can can still do that (Steam in-home streaming is very good—I played Saint's Row 4 in its entirety using it). And yeah, my run of DOOM 2016 was done with an UHDTV, lights off, and my sound system cranked. Metal as fuck. I plan to do the same thing with Eternal when it comes out.

I've also found that the recliner setup works well for Elite: Dangerous. I designed a HOTAS mount for my recliner, so whenever I decide to play that I get my X56 set up, strap on the Rift, and set up my recliner to roughly the same angle that the in-game pilot does. It ends up being pretty immersive.

And figured out my password here so actually have the luxury of typing on a real ass keyboard over some stupid mobile device.

I mean, technically you can hook a USB/Bluetooth keyboard up to a phone. I'm sure that would be a great experience. ;)

Besides a few annoying issues, and not being used to being on a computer at all anymore, I'm pretty happy with how it's turned out. Not to mention my typing speed hasn't seem to degrade at all, save for my fingers getting tired, but that'll go away with time.

Glad to hear it! ;D
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vladgd

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Re: Getting something to compute with
« Reply #22 on: July 09, 2019, 11:12:48 AM »
I'm in monitor hell now. Currently using an old 24inch asus 60hz 1080p thing. IT WORKS FINE, but im a bit too far away from my monitor, and, reading text is challenging, including games ive been playing not called DOOM (DOOM is perfectly fine from any range because DOOM IS FANTASTIC).

So, my specs. ryzen 2700, rtx 2060, 32 gigs ram

I want a 32 inch monitor, because I'm not sure if 27 inches would be big enough from this far away. I'm about  ~6 feet away from my monitor, and in my opinion, it's a bit too close for my 42 inch tv, but I'd wager a 32 inch monitor would be fine.

Problem is now all the kids want high refresh rates ALONG WITH low latency and the newer resolutions, and I found out that the difference between a 60hz and 144hz monitor same size same resoulution, typically over $100-150 more. And it doesnt make matters any easier with curved displays (which I could probably deal with if I got a good deal, but I don't want a curved display) and dead pixels and whatever other wonkey problems  displays get, it's making clicking the buy button scarey. Those dead pixel scares aren't just "ohh it'll never happen to me" because it's happened to me. First new monitor I got in my life, half the entire monitor dead pixels, second one (a samsung) few dead pixels that were annoying to deal with, third one (another samsung...) bad capacitor and I didn't have the soldering skills to repair it (easy fix, if you are half compitent with soldering, of which i wasnt, and still am not, i'll learn some day), and this asus monitor which is perfectly fine, albeit with edge glow and some blurry text, both of which I am more than used to.

tl;dr, mandatory need 32inch, 144hz (i wanna see what the fuss is about, but if i drop it...could save a lot of money), optional but desired 1440p, and a pricepoint of at least under $330 (cheapest I've found em)

Found if I sacrifice 1440p, I really only save like $30-40 depending on brand, but if I sacrifice 144hz in favor of 60 or 75, I could get a $200 monitor. It's tough, I don't really know what to go with at this point, but I want one soon, because my eyes strain reading text at this range, and I cant get closer because, #reclinerpc
« Last Edit: July 09, 2019, 11:33:35 AM by vladgd »

Spectere

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Re: Getting something to compute with
« Reply #23 on: July 09, 2019, 04:56:39 PM »
With monitors you generally get what you pay for, unfortunately, whether it's viewing angles, color rendition, the inclusion of adaptive sync (FreeSync/G-Sync, i.e. the ability to natively render at, say, 99hz on a 144hz panel and still maintain sync, instead of dropping to 72hz with vsync or putting up with tearing), warranty, and/or pixel transition time (not necessarily refresh rate--you can have a display that can technically do 144hz but the pixels can't go from white to black in the requisite ~7ms).

I did find an LG at the $350 price point that hits all of the points (32"—31.5" viewable, lol—1440p, 144hz, no curve) and also includes FreeSync support: LG 32GK650F-B

As far as 60hz vs 144hz, it definitely makes a difference. Weird as it may sound, whenever I get in the mood to play Super Hexagon I play it exclusively on my iPad Pro because playing it on its 120hz display is legitimately a superior experience to playing it on any of my PCs. Even silly things like mouse pointer movements feel downright sluggish when you go from 144hz to 60hz.
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Bobbias

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Re: Getting something to compute with
« Reply #24 on: July 11, 2019, 09:09:23 AM »
Yeah, I'll second the high refresh rate making a difference. I'm running 1440p 144hz (actually, I've got it OC'd to 165) and everything is just smooth as butter.
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vladgd

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Re: Getting something to compute with
« Reply #25 on: July 11, 2019, 08:00:25 PM »
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07HHV3LR2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

seems to hit all the notes, literally salivating all shift till I got home to this bad boy. Didn't want curved, but for the price, it's fine.

Will probably report later after some use, but this thing is hueg, never had a monitor this big in my life.

vladgd

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Re: Getting something to compute with
« Reply #26 on: July 22, 2019, 11:42:52 PM »
Computer more or less runs fine, although that day 1 issue has crept up again.

New monitor, new game.

Dawn of War II, boot up, it's in an off resolution, works totally fine....alt tab, monitor dies.

Not, monitor turns black, or turns off, monitor dies. Persists after a system reboot, monitor is black unless I physically pull the power and re insert power. To be greeted by some windows boot issue requiring me to go into the boot menu of bios and override whatever.

I beat doom fine, I can play ff14 fine, diablo 3 had that monitor killing issue solved by changing resolution in nvidia menu first, but now Dawn of War II. I get not being able to display something, but killing my display outright, PAST POWERING DOWN MY MACHINE, I've never seen this before, and my google fu has yet to find me a solution.

Any ideas? It aint graphics drivers because that's the first thing I update upon a fresh boot, I know that for a fact.

*edit*

https://steamcommunity.com/app/20900/discussions/0/492379159707383210/

I launched game from folder, and it worked? But I also "optimize all games" from the nvidia thing, and it could have changed to my native 1440p resolution before boot? which wouldn't make sense because despite having the steam location for dawn of war 2 in my nvidia search, the game doesn't show up in my games list, so maybe the application is just bugged for displaying stuff I have yet still optimizes it?

I dont know, sf4 is still shot, but this one works, for now. Still don't know about that boot issue, easy solution, but feels like it randomly comes up on me, requiring a hitting of the restart button, mashing f2, and loading from bios.
« Last Edit: July 22, 2019, 11:56:04 PM by vladgd »

Bobbias

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Re: Getting something to compute with
« Reply #27 on: July 25, 2019, 11:45:31 AM »
Ok, that's definitely a new one for me. Never heard of something that messes the monitor up enough to persist past a reboot and require a power cycle on the monitor like that.
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vladgd

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Re: Getting something to compute with
« Reply #28 on: June 09, 2020, 04:23:48 PM »
NEKROOOO

So I haven't "fixed" the problem, more just figured out what caused it and sidestepped it.

I don't think I needed to reboot my machine, just power cycle the monitor. Cause SEEMS to be going from 144hz, booting up a game that doesn't support it which will flip to 60hz (again, im not expert, just assuming based on my observations), and that switch crashes my monitor.

When I went from 60 to 144hz, monitor acted fine. But when I switch back in the settings from 144hz to 60hz, crash. Power cycle, just keep the damn thing at 60hz, and I can play all my games, including whatever I mentioned in this thread just fine.

144hz looks good, but not good enough to warrant monitor crashes. Also, again, it looks good, but it doesn't look THAT good. Overrated in my opinion, nice to have, but overrated.

Still have yet to fix my boot problem...so mashing delete to manually boot from bios every time I boot it is.

ANd....while im here. I bought a usb/sata cable to grab some data off some old hdds. Works fine on my old kingston ssd, plug and play (minus needing permission to access my own shit, but thats another topic), but both of my western digital HDD's won't even show up as having any data, 0 bytes, cannot access drives, blablabla. Whenever I'm not lazy I might try connecting the drives to my mobo directly, because i know they work, and i know the cable works, as does the usb port i was using. Going to be another one of those pc issues that isn't a huge deal, but i spend a few minutes every now and then trying to fix.

Spectere

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Re: Getting something to compute with
« Reply #29 on: June 10, 2020, 12:41:13 PM »
My guess would be that the cable is only delivering 3.3V and 5V to the hard drives, and the drives that aren't working with it require the 12V pins to be livened. If the cable only has a USB lead and no dedicated power supply, that's definitely going to be the case (USB only supplies 5V, and it's far cheaper/easier to step down than to step up). Basically, in this situation, the drive's controller would be receiving power and functioning normally, but since the motor wouldn't be capable of spinning up it wouldn't be able to get any data from the platters.
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